Railway magazine now with Mortons

[birdseyecircus]

According to Rail Express publishers Mortons, they have aquired Railway magazine to add to their stable of rail mags. http://www.railexpress.co.uk/

Only ever bought the mag a couple of times to read on holiday flights.

 

Paul

[coachmann]

I wonder what the magazine world will look like in twelve months time.......

[PhilJ W]

I do hope that they don't mess about with it too much.

PS and keep it to A4 size! Rail Express is now an awkward size I much preferred it when it was A4.

[Gwiwer]

I am a regular (and loyal) reader having had a subscription since 1969.

 

RM has been around a bit over the years. You might reasonably expect that for a publication which has appeared continuously since 1897. Who knows what business logic or dealings lie behind this move but editor Nick Piggott had alluded to the announcement being made in his past two editorials.

 

Previous changes of ownership have not always resulted in wholesale changes to the magazine nor the staff. Currently the RM boasts the largest circulation of any comparable magazine by some margin so it may not be in anyone's interests to mess with a winning formula. If it ain't broke .....

 

Piggott has been at the helm for some time and has brought RM back from a flagging and dated publication to lead its rivals once more. I'm sure he and his team will miss the stunning views of the London rail scene from their "Blue Fin building " offices however, a location to which they moved only comparatively recently.

 

Interesting times.

[Blandford1969]

The transfer happened on the 1st of November, but had been in discussion for some time, IPC sold quite a few titles at the same time.

 

I think we should all wish Nick and his team good luck. The move to a company that has more focus on the railway scene might mean that the quality is improved even further, something I know Nick is keen to do.

 

As with all transfers it will take a few months to settle down and for us to see what happens, after all its a big shift from central London to deepest Lincolnshire.

[russellwar]

No idea what has happened with rail express delivery. Had received it for years always the day after uk subscribers, now 2 weeks last time and waiting for the latest one. Hope they sort it out

[johnstreet]

It is good to see that The Railway Magazine has found a reliable new owner. Morton's now have a sizeable share of the railway publication market with Heritage Railway, RailExpress and now The Railway Magazine. Railways also appear in their Old Glory title too, of course. Railway Mag is a true survivor from the early days of railway publishing and for its breadth of coverage takes some beating. The editorial trumpet-blowing can be off-putting at times but all that news coverage within one publication offers good value for money. The one thing I would like to see improved would be their seemingly inconsistent approach to picture reproduction. For example, in the November 2010 issue a pic of Warship D806 at Bristol accompanying a feature on 'The Bristolian' in the diesel era was used a little too big for the physical quality of the image (though, to be fair, RM are certainly not the only publication guilty of this!). Then, at the other extreme, they publish pictures so small that you wonder why they include them at all! The pic of Mervyn Allcock receiving his award on p12 of the December 2010 issue is an example. People used to comment that RM used pics the size of postage stamps, but even today's stamps are bigger than that!

[Welly]

It's odd to see so many railway publications based in a town that has no railway station! Still I hope Railway magazine keeps up the quality and continue to meet my need for news of the whole British railway scene.

[johnstreet]

The January 2011 issue of RM has landed, the first under Morton Media's ownership and my first impressions were that it looks clean and tidy and that the company intends to invest in its new addition to their transport portfolio. The editor admits that there have been the inevitable teething problems during the changeover period in his editorial. Some of the pics in the 'Peak' practice article are examples of photos being used beyond their physical capabilities while obvious caption lines such as 'No.46040, one of the Class 46 variety...' could be improved! The Welsh Highland Railway Double Fairlie centre spread, taken during a photo charter, is very well presented.

[Gwiwer]

Given that the "January 2011" issue has landed in November 2010 I wonder if we might see a slight easing of the production schedule to bring the cover date a little closer to the calendar.

 

The drive to be first on the shelves was taken to seemingly ridiculous extremes some years back when there was more serious competition than exists today. At that time the RM led the way and worked to ever-tighter deadlines to get the next issue out at the very beginning of the month preceding the cover date. Now it seems they have achieved two months before!

 

I'll wait patiently for mine to arrive mid-month as it's an international subscription copy.

[chrisf]

Mine came yesterday. It seems to have survived the move relatively unscathed, but given that the editor and deputy editor went with it I should jolly well hope so. Let us all wish it well in its new home!

 

Chris

[ikcdab]

I received my copy of RM yesterday (29 Nov) and was impressed to see an event reported in the mag that happened on 24 Nov. And i dont think they were 'looking ahead'. I dont have the mag with me now so i cannot rememeber what it now was...But it does show how tight the production timescales now are.

[Oakydoke]

I do hope that they don't mess about with it too much.

PS and keep it to A4 size! Rail Express is now an awkward size I much preferred it when it was A4.

Note that Rail Express returns back to A4 size from the January 2011 edition.